Bottle-cap.



G. E. STAHL.

BOTTLE GAP.

APPLICATION FILED JAN.25, 1909.

WITNESSES: TNVENTOR.

f ATTORNEY Patented Sept 14, 1909.

} GEORGE EMIL STAHL, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY;

, Toull whom alt-may concern? BOTTLE-CA1.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed January 25, 1909. Serial No. 473,988.

Be-it known that I, GEORGE Eiu-IL STAHL,

' a citizen of the United States, and a resident larly of Jersey City,i n the-county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful 'Improyements in Bottle- Caps, of which the following is a specification. 4 1

The invention relates to improvements in bottle-caps, and consists in the novel cap structure hereinafter described and particupointed out in the claims.

It is well known that bottle-caps, such as are used on beer and other bottles, are freafter having been. removed from the quently gathered up, sold, re-shapedand bottles,

used again, the successive uses of the caps continuing so long as the metal remains capable of being reshaped or restored to its original condition. These caps when m, moved from bottles are frequently permitted to-ifall on the floor where they remain until the saloon orbar-room is on the following morning cleaned up, at which time the caps are so arated out from the other refuse, and they nally become sold, reshaped and used agam.

f known as; v crown portion, usually contammg-a sealin The purpose of the present invention is to I Wander im ossible the obviously objectionable practice of selling and again using bottle caps which have once been removed from bottles, and to this end my invention res1des in' a bottlecap of such structure that it on being pried from a bottle become so dis-' 'rtedor torn that it cannot be reshaped for further'use.

-"The bottle-caps to which my.. in vention pertains a'r formed ofstiif sheet metal of substantially uniform thickness throughout and are removed from the bottles by means ofvariously constructed devices commonly cap lifters. The capshave a disk, and a depending peripheral corruga In carrying inv the meta through the insure such'distortion. or tearingof-the cap flange to engagean annular 'shoulder onthe botte.

of the cap extending artly metal and so loc 'ted'that on'the firstremoval of the cap from a bottle .it will fth'at the latter cannot be successfully reout my invention, I form a: cut

shaped and used again. The cut I form in Patented-Sept. 14, 1909.

the metal will preferably be in the outline of a circle and so located that when the cap is applied it will become disposed l over the upper edges of the bottle neck, ,in.,w hiclrpo.-- s1tiori the weakened line in the capcaused by the cut"will' be subjectto distortion by the upward prying action of .a; cap-lifter ap- 'understood from the detailed description herein- 7 after presented, reference being had to the plied to the flange of the cap.

The invention will be more accompanying drawin ,m which:

Figure 1 is a vertica section, on the dotted line l1 of Fig. 2, of a bottle cap embodying my invention, the vcap being shown on the neck of a bottle; Fig. 2' is a bottom view of the cap, the circular cut-line being shown as having been made in theunder surface of the cap; Fig. 3 is a top view of-a similar cap showing the circular cut-line as having been 1 made in the top surface of the cap, and Fig. 4 isva topview of the cap-of Figs; 1 and 2 shown in-the condition it will have after having been pried u wardl' at 'one edge from off of a bottle, t e-cap ing bent and distorted and torn along the cut-line adjacent to that edge of the cap at which the upward pressure was applied.

In the drawings,l0 designates thebottleneck, '11 the cap and 12 a sealing disk there- The cap 11 is not of unusual construction, with the exception of the feature thereof embracing myinvention, the said capbemade from sheet metal of substantially- 'uniform'thickness throughout and formed with a depending corrugated flange to 'em- 4 brace the annular shoulder around the mouth of the bottle. accordance with my invent1on, in its preferredembodiment, I form in "the lower surface of the metal of the top of the cap a cut 14=Ion a'circular line extending part way through the-metal and 'so located that when the cap is on a bottle, the. said outline 14-wfll be in line with the thickness of. v

the bottle-neck and adj acent. to the edges of the top of the cap, as'shown inFig. 1. The cut-line 14 in lieu of being formed in the underside of theto .of the cap, may, if preferred, be forme in -the upper su'rface'of said cap, as denoted at 15 in Fig. 3. I prefer, however, to form the cut-line in the the cap will tend to spread open'the said cutlower or under surface of the cap, since when in such location any upward pressure applied against the lower edge of the flange of hne.

My invention is, as hereinbefore explained, to prevent more than one use of the-cap and to so construct the cap that the upward pressure applied to one of its edges in removing it from a bottle will so distort or otherwise injure the cap that it cannot be reshaped and "used again. In Fig. 4 I illustrate the effect on the cap of my invention,'by its removal 'from a bottle, the upward pressure havinlgl been applied to the side 16of the cap. It wi be observed that the upward bending of the cap caused by the cap-lifter has disfigured the cap and caused abreak to occur along those portions of the cut-line 14 adjacent to the side 16, and obviously the cap shown in Fig. 4 could not be restored to a condition Wlll determine whether the cap will break at once during itsremo'val from the bottle or during the attempt to reshape the same in. the recrimping press, but in either event the cap becomes rendered unfit for second use on a bottle. Therapsof my invention I cannot, therefore, be gathered up from the floors of saloons and like places and reshaped and used again, as is a common practice with respect to the caps at present customarily I in My invention therefore avoids the.

. poses set forth.

use of unsanitary caps on bottles and the possible consequences of any such use.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters-Patent, is:

1. A bottle-cap having a depending flange to engage a shoulder on the neck of a bottle and removable from the bottle by being pried therefrom, said cap being of sheet metal and having a cut-line extending partly through the same for insuring the efl'ectual distortion of the cap; substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. A bottle-cap having a depending flange to engage a shoulder on the neck of a bottle and removable from the bottle by being pried therefrom, said cap being of sheet metal and having a cut-line extending partly through the same for insuring the eflfectual distortion of the cap, and said cut-line extending around the crown of the cap so as to be affected at Whatever point a removal tool may exert its pressure against said flange; substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

3. A bottle-cap having'a depending flange to engage a shoulder on the neck of a bottle and removable from the bottle by therefrom, said cap being of sheet metal and having a cut-line extending partly through the same for insuring the effectual distortion of the cap, and said cut-line extending around the crown of the cap in position to be located over the thickness of the sides of the bottle-neck when the cap is in'position thereon; substantiall Signed at New York city, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 22hd day of January A. D. 1909. GEORGE EMIL STAHL. Witnesse's:

ABTHUR.MARION, CHAs. C. GILL.

beingpried.

asv and for the pur- 

